An update on MORSE
Hey folks,
Hope you're all doing well! Been a while since I've updated MORSE. It's been an interesting time since I posted.
To give a brief summary, around a year ago I hit the peak of the project: I toured MORSE around Asia, winning awards in experimental design and exploring Japan and Korea. It was a thrilling time and I was genuinely so proud for it to soar to such heights. But a week after returning to the UK during a business accelerator, I realised I wasn't able to breathe and I was hospitalised with a suspected pulmonary embolism. After numerous tests, they concluded it was thankfully just exhaustion and ordered a week of bedrest. Due to this health scare and a number of compounding life reasons, I had to shelve the project last year. I'd been pushing it for 2 years and despite the positive reception, publishers just weren't willing to commit (despite them dragging out conversations for literally years).
You can read a longer post about this experience on TIGSource (as others have linked), but in short, I've taken the last year away from the game to do experimental design, stop trying to conform to the industry and actually explore the stuff I'm interested in. I've toured my work in Berlin, Manchester and New York, I've leant into controller fabrication and designing short, ground breaking experiences meant for physical exhibition instead of bloated, commercial projects that outstay their welcome to hit an arbitrary 2 hour mark.
My spirit for the project was truly poisoned by the awful behaviour of publishers, so it's only in the last few months I've felt any kind of motivation to work on MORSE again. But that enthusiasm has returned. Having said that, that experimental , minimal mindset has informed this latest iteration.
What was previously proposed is unsustainable to deliver, I can't financially or physically do it, my previous hospitalisation was proof of that. But, I'm in the privileged position to have the ability to make my own experiences without having to hire programmers, the main catch is it's not using conventional tools like Unity.
This is to say, you will at some point get MORSE as an experience, but it'll be made in Stencyl, it's going to be a lot more minimalist and as players you'll need to accept that there'll be constraints of the tool and possibly not features that most conventional launches have.
On the other hand, I am far more adept with this tool and am confident that this gameplay wise is already a far superior project. I'm excited to share updates on the new version and what's changed since I last posted. I recently showed the latest version of the game at EGX in London which went down incredibly well and since then I've introduced a slew of updates and systems, of which I'll share soon.
For those of you that have Wishlisted and followed the project, thank you for your patience.
Stay tuned!
.-
Hope you're all doing well! Been a while since I've updated MORSE. It's been an interesting time since I posted.
To give a brief summary, around a year ago I hit the peak of the project: I toured MORSE around Asia, winning awards in experimental design and exploring Japan and Korea. It was a thrilling time and I was genuinely so proud for it to soar to such heights. But a week after returning to the UK during a business accelerator, I realised I wasn't able to breathe and I was hospitalised with a suspected pulmonary embolism. After numerous tests, they concluded it was thankfully just exhaustion and ordered a week of bedrest. Due to this health scare and a number of compounding life reasons, I had to shelve the project last year. I'd been pushing it for 2 years and despite the positive reception, publishers just weren't willing to commit (despite them dragging out conversations for literally years).
You can read a longer post about this experience on TIGSource (as others have linked), but in short, I've taken the last year away from the game to do experimental design, stop trying to conform to the industry and actually explore the stuff I'm interested in. I've toured my work in Berlin, Manchester and New York, I've leant into controller fabrication and designing short, ground breaking experiences meant for physical exhibition instead of bloated, commercial projects that outstay their welcome to hit an arbitrary 2 hour mark.
My spirit for the project was truly poisoned by the awful behaviour of publishers, so it's only in the last few months I've felt any kind of motivation to work on MORSE again. But that enthusiasm has returned. Having said that, that experimental , minimal mindset has informed this latest iteration.
What was previously proposed is unsustainable to deliver, I can't financially or physically do it, my previous hospitalisation was proof of that. But, I'm in the privileged position to have the ability to make my own experiences without having to hire programmers, the main catch is it's not using conventional tools like Unity.
This is to say, you will at some point get MORSE as an experience, but it'll be made in Stencyl, it's going to be a lot more minimalist and as players you'll need to accept that there'll be constraints of the tool and possibly not features that most conventional launches have.
On the other hand, I am far more adept with this tool and am confident that this gameplay wise is already a far superior project. I'm excited to share updates on the new version and what's changed since I last posted. I recently showed the latest version of the game at EGX in London which went down incredibly well and since then I've introduced a slew of updates and systems, of which I'll share soon.
For those of you that have Wishlisted and followed the project, thank you for your patience.
Stay tuned!
.-